I started getting paid to do this stuff in 1993 as the admin for a 100 node network and began writing one-off apps for the company in my spare time. By 2002, I was developing and managing enterprise software projects full time.

I sat through so many Microsoft classes that they should offer me an honorary MCSE, MCSD, and a bunch of other letters, plus name something on campus after me. I took an undergraduate degree in Management & Business Information Systems, earned an MBA, and I hold a PMP credential, though trying to bring projects to successful completion (as opposed to tracking processes into perpetuity) using the PMBOK is like trying to get to a nice restaurant in a big city by reading a book about its architecture. But, I digress...